When the first lockdown started to overwhelm us, there were tons of posts on social media and in private chats and groups, talking about what we’ve learned from social isolation.
People were talking about a “new” perspective on life. How nothing would ever be taken for granted; how family and friends were above everything. No material thing could compare, most declared, to those who had lived with us through these hard times.
If someone was to compile all the motivational speeches delivered during the first lockdown, you’d think that the years to follow would be the golden age of humanity.
After all, everyone wanted to do something with their life. Everyone wanted to get back out there and make every moment count. But what everyone didn’t anticipate when making impassioned social media posts was that every single one of us is a phony.
A 100% clout-chasing phony who eagerly cashed in on the pandemic. It sounds harsh, and I’ve been called a pessimist for it, but it’s true.
The pandemic and consequent lockdowns were meant to teach us about humility and caring for others- if you believe any of the stories and posts everyone made. Of course, some people have genuinely worked hard during the pandemic to make others’ lives better; people whose lives have changed because of the pandemic, but these people are a minority.
Most of us went back to our old lives the minute we got double-jabbed and could go out unrestricted again. Gone is our sense of social responsibility. It seems as though everyone thinks that, because a fraction of the population has been vaccinated, the world is alright again.
The very people who had been calling out influencers and celebrities for “partying” during the pandemic have started to frequent clubs and bars, as though a vaccination gives them the right to put others in jeopardy. The new argument is that if you’re stupid to not get vaccinated, it’s on you if you get COVID because the vaccine only makes it as bad as the flu.
Now, there are so many things wrong with this mindset, but I’ve spent quite a few hours going through Twitter and Instagram to see an abundance of such opinions.
Of course, there are people who’re anti-vaxxers, but that’s not an issue in my part of the world. In my part of the world, when the WHO says to get vaccinated, we get vaccinated. The people who don’t get vaccinated are the ones being groomed by religious zealots into believing that vaccines are a way to rid the world of the Muslim population.
And even those people are able to wake up from the trance of these clerics after some time. So, what’s our excuse?
The answer is nothing. We don’t have an excuse. It’s sad, but it’s true. People forgot about what happened. Especially those who were lucky enough not to see the deaths of an immediate family member.
And to those of us who’ve had to live through the hell of not being able to say goodbye to those who succumbed to COVID, the scars left by this pandemic are too deep to heal.
I won’t shy away from saying that I positively detest those who’ve gone back to their lives as though nothing happened. Something happened to many of us; just because some people were lucky doesn’t give them the right to shirk their responsibilities.
Especially since there was an epidemic of such people sympathizing with those who lost family and friends. Perhaps the most scarring aspect of the pandemic were the social media posts. So many people lost their grandparents, parents, siblings, and relatives. At the height of the pandemic, it seemed as though everyone was losing loved ones by the hour.
Yet, it’s so easy to forget that we’re never going to see them again.
This is also especially true since the pandemic isn’t really over yet. There are more variants coming, but because we’re “vaccinated,” everyone thinks it’s okay to pretend that we’ve moved past COVID-19.
But we haven’t, and I think it’s disgusting how everyone’s pretending that things are normal. It shows a general lack of care, social responsibility, and even self-awareness. I knew humans were selfish by nature, but the politicization of the pandemic seems like a new low even for our species. Hopefully, in time, once the “post-pandemic” bliss wears off, everyone will find the time to remember what we’ve lost and will strive to do better.
